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- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - FYI: News Items of Interest, November 5, 2009 (7 items) Compiled by Chelsea M. Mead Additional information about sources available at the end of the message. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [1] "Lower Brule Tribe Gets Grant From Minn. Tribe,” The Associated Press. November 4, 2009. © Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.. All rights reserved. Full text available at: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/11/04/ap/business/main5523852.shtml ** “The Lower Brule Sioux Tribe in South Dakota has been selected to receive a grant of $940,000 from the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community of Prior Lake, Minn. The money is for economic development and community infrastructure…” [2] "Court Awards B.C. Tribe Fishing Rights,” Larry Pynn, Canwest News Service. November 4, 2009. © Copyright 2009 Canwest News Service. All rights reserved. Full text available at: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/story.html?id=2182707 ** “The Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council claimed a legal victory Tuesday after a lengthy B.C. Supreme Court case aimed at defining aboriginal commercial fishing rights. The council said Justice Nicole Garson gave the aboriginal people the right to harvest and sell fish in their territory, although the right is restricted and requires negotiations with B.C. and Canada. Justice Garson said the First Nation's territory extends nine nautical miles offshore -- not the 100 they had claimed..." [3] "Feds Pledge Overhaul of Tribal Recognition System," The Associated Press. November 4, 2009. © Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. Full text available at: http://www.benningtonbanner.com/business/ci_13716221 “With some American Indian groups waiting decades for formal recognition from the U.S.government, federal officials Wednesday pledged to overhaul the cumbersome process but cautioned the changes could take two years to go into effect. Federal recognition renders tribes eligible for economic assistance, land, housing grants and other government benefits. Decisions on whether tribes qualify are supposed to be made by the Department of Interior within 25 months. Yet some Indians have seen their petitions languish within the agency’s Bureau of Indian Affairs for 30 years or more without an answer…” [4] “USDA Reports In-Depth Look at American Indian Farmers,” United States Department of Agricultre. November 4, 2009. Copyright © 2009 USDA. All rights reserved. Full Text Available at: http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/!ut/p/_s.7_0_A/7_0_1OB?contentidonly=true&contentid=2009/11/0552.xml<http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/%21ut/p/_s.7_0_A/7_0_1OB?contentidonly=true&contentid=2009/11/0552.xml> “In celebration of American Indian Heritage Month the U.S. Department of Agriculture today reported that there are nearly 80,000 American Indian operators on 61,472 farms and ranches across the United States. This represents an 88-percent increase over the number of American Indian farmers USDA counted in 2002. The report was released on the heels of a meeting held today with more than 100 tribal leaders and members and Senior USDA officials including Agriculture Secretary Vilsack and Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan in advance of the White House Tribal Nations Conference. ‘Today's first-of-its-kind meeting to expand cooperation and consultation between the Department of Agriculture and tribal nations was a great success because it advanced robust government-to-government dialogues about how USDA can improve as a service provider and raise awareness among tribes about the multitude of ways that USDA works to improve the lives of our nation's tribal communities,’ said Secretary Vilsack. ‘Tribal producers can play key roles in building local production and can be an important engine of economic development in tribal communities.’ The Census also showed a 124-percent increase in the number of Native Americans who were the principal operator of a farm or ranch. Their operations account for nearly 50 million acres of farmland in the United States. When compared to all farms nationwide, those operated by American Indians tend to be smaller in terms of sales, averaging $40,331, but significantly larger in size, averaging 1,431 acres…” [5] “Attorney General Urges Congress To Reform Annexation, Leave In Place Court Ruling Requiring Congressional Approval For Post-1934 Tribes To Add To Reservations,” Connecticut Attorney General’s Office. November 4, 2009. Copyright © 2009 State of Connecticut Attoryney General’s Office. All Rights Reserved. Full Text Available at: http://www.ct.gov/ag/cwp/view.asp?Q=450152&A=3673 “Attorney General Richard Blumenthal today urged Congress to reform the federal land annexation process to make it fairer and more responsive to citizens, and leave in place a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision requiring congressional approval for Indian tribes recognized after 1934 to add land to their reservations. In testimony before the House Committee on Natural Resources, Blumenthal blasted the BIA annexation process as fatally flawed and unfair to states and local communities that lose tax revenue and control over property added to a reservation. He said congressional approval for post-1934 tribes is a fairer, more open process enabling the interests of all to be heard and considered. The court ruled in Carcieri vs. Salazarthat the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) only allows tribes recognized by the federal government as of 1934 to annex land through the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) administrative process. Tribes such as the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan recognized after 1934 may still add to their reservations by an act of Congress. Blumenthal said lawmakers should overhaul the BIA annexation process to make it fairer and more open or abolish it and have Congress decide all Indian trust land applications. He urged better standards for deciding trust land applications and requiring BIA to immediately provide states and local communities with trust land applications and backup materials…” [6] “Senate Eyes "Broken" Bureaucracy for New Tribes,” The Associated Press. November 4, 2009. Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. Full Text Available at: http://www.kfgo.com/regionalnews_Detail.php?ID=10209 “A U.S. Senate committee plans a hearing today into the government's "broken" process for acknowledging American Indian tribes. Federal recognition makes tribes eligible for economic assistance, housing grants and other government benefits. But some Indian groups have seen their petitions for recognition languish for decades without a decision from the Interior Department. Members of the Senate Indian Affairs committee including its chairman, North Dakota Democrat Byron Dorgan, say the process is broken and needs reform. They point to the experience of Montana's Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa, which filed its recognition petition in 1978, the same year the current process was established by Congress. It took 31 years for the tribe to get a negative decision from Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs — an outcome Montana's Congressional delegation has vowed to overturn…” [7] “Judge Gives Ottawa, Band Two Years to Solve Dispute,” Ian Bailey, The Globe and Mail. November 4, 2009. Copyright © 2009 The Globe and Mail. All Rights Reserved. Full Text Available at: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/judge-gives-ottawa-band-two-years-to-solve-dispute/article1350479/ ** “A B.C. Supreme Court justice has given the federal government and the Nuu-chah-nulth First Nation of Vancouver Island two years to come up a solution after finding that the current fisheries regime infringed on the natives' aboriginal rights. Madam Justice Nicole Garson said the ‘cumulative effect’ of the status quo is that the ability of the Nuu-chah-nulth to fish has been restricted. In a 307-page ruling released yesterday, Judge Garson wrote: "I am confident in the ability of Canada and the plaintiffs to engage in constructive consultations and to ultimately arrive at a resolution. ‘My conclusions are that Canada [presented] evidence to justify the entirety of its fisheries regime but not to justify its failure to permit the Nuu-chah-nulth to exercise their aboriginal fishing rights.’ She said the parties are welcome to return to court to tender further evidence if they cannot reach an agreement…” - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - FYI: News Items of Interest is a daily resource compiled by the H-AMINDIAN staff. It features a sampling of news stories concerning Native issues primarily in Canada, the United States and Mexico. In order to comply with Academic Fair Use and copyright laws, only an excerpt of the news articles is offered here. We will not reproduce articles in whole. Links are provided for articles located online without subscription to an academic search database. Your college, university, or public library may provide access to online data bases and services (such as Lexis-Nexis, ProQuest, or Dialog) with full-text versions of these and other stories. H-AMINDIAN is part of the H-NET family and is housed in the Department of History, Arizona State University. Visit our website at http://history.clas.asu.edu/h-amindian
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